Shirley U. Emehelu

Acting Secretary of State

Shirley U. Emehelu leads the New Jersey Department of State as Acting Secretary of State. She previously served as Acting State Comptroller. Prior to her appointment, she served for two years as the Executive Assistant Attorney General of New Jersey, the third ranking official in the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. At the Attorney General’s Office, Acting Secretary Emehelu directly counseled the Attorney General of New Jersey, coordinated the oversight of the 500+ attorneys within the Division of Law, New Jersey’s largest legal office, and directed civil defensive and civil enforcement matters across a wide spectrum, including environmental protection, civil rights, consumer and labor protection, firearms safety, and data privacy. Acting Secretary Emehelu was previously a Member of the White-Collar Criminal Defense and Government Investigations Group of CSG Law and co-led the firm’s Banking and Finance Group. She also previously served as Chief of Asset Recovery and Anti-Money Laundering for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, overseeing various statewide programs, including federal asset forfeiture, money laundering, and victim restitution. During her nine-year tenure at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she federally prosecuted numerous complex financial fraud cases. Acting Secretary Emehelu clerked for the Honorable James R. Spencer in the Eastern District of Virginia. She received her B.A. from Yale University and J.D. from Yale Law School.